Several notions about learning inform the organization of this site.
They are simply stated:

We learn in diverse ways and at our own paces

Most learning is iterative, i.e., we most often learn not by succeeding
at first but by trying and trying again

It is easiest to stick with a task, especially a frustrating and/or
repetitive one, if we perceive it as authentic, i.e., one actual practitioners
routinely engage in

I have sought to develop these ideas in several articles
and so will not repeat myself here. Instead I will draw several practical
implications which guided the design of this site:

Variety is the spice of learning; therefore,

Wherever possible, we should allow students a choice of points of entry
into an assignment or curricular unit

We should also, whenever we can, allow students a chance to play to
their strengths

Lessons cannot, if we follow these suggestions, ever have too much
content

Since this last point will strike many as heterodox and may strike some
as counterintuitive, I should add a brief explanation. The goal is not to
get students to amass vast quantities of information. It is to get them
imaginatively engaged with the issues our units and assignments raise. We
cannot do this by simplifying. The imagination feeds on detail. The more,
and more diverse, materials we have to work with, the richer our mental
images. Students do not panic in the presence of such riches so long as
they understand that their task is to make sense of some, not all, of what
they encounter, that they have some say in what materials they will work
with, and that they can draw upon the work of their colleagues. Sound idyllic?
Utopian? Not at all, unless you consider the current actual state of historical
scholarship perfect. I have just described how actual practitioners go about
their tasks. This is the practical meaning of authenic learning.

All of the materials on this site deal with ways in which Americans in
the middle of the nineteenth century tried to make sense of gender, what
they called sex. The question arose most directly in the new woman's rights
movement and the responses it evoked. But it influenced, shaded, helped
shape the entire culture. It is in the jokes, the songs, the primers used
by small children learning to read, the sermons, the political harangues,
the fiction, and the poetry. So we have cast our net very widely.

We have pulled some materials together in curricular units with suggestions
for the classroom teacher. Some of these can be done in a single class.
Others are appropriate for term projects. Some can be used in the middle
grades. Others will challenge Advanced Placement students. All are document-based.

We have collected much more, out of which the instructor may pick and
choose. You can custom design your own lessons and assignments. When you
do, or when you use one we have put together, we would very much appreciate
hearing of your experiences. Please contact: John
McClymer, Professor of History, Assumption College, Worcester, MA 01609.